La chambre bleue 2014

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: It's an accomplished film, if a bit cool and tidy; you wish there were a little more to it. Read more

Mary Corliss, TIME Magazine: Thank heaven for French movies like Mathieu Amalric's The Blue Room, which compactly addresses the ecstasies and occasionally dangerous consequences of intimate contact. Read more

Guy Lodge, Variety: Mathieu Amalric's adaptation of Georges Simenon's mystery novel honors the text, but misses the atmosphere. Read more

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, AV Club: [Amalric's] leanest, most morose, and most handsomely accomplished work, distinguished by enigmatic close-ups, lush orchestrations, and delicate lighting. Read more

Kerry Lengel, Arizona Republic: It is a quiet but intense and closely observed piece of work. Read more

Peter Keough, Boston Globe: "Blue Room" demonstrates that, as a director, Amalric has begun to master the medium. Now he needs to work on expanding his palette. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The pleasure of a whodunit generally derives from trying to figure out who done it, but in the case of this arty, terminally obscure French mystery, most of the story has already transpired before one can even piece together what was done. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Amalric throws in flashbacks and flash-forwards between bedroom and courthouse, and I was reminded again why I prefer my noirs in the hardboiled American style rather than tricked up with all this faux Alain Resnais-style filigree. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: 'The Blue Room" is a tight little look at love gone wrong, something of a stripped-down French "Gone Girl" without the surprises. Read more

Missy Schwartz, Entertainment Weekly: The teasing pace creates a noirish tension that, alas, peters out by the time the justice system decides Julien's fate. Read more

Jordan Mintzer, Hollywood Reporter: [Amalric's] latest effort, The Blue Room (La Chambre bleue), takes a cue from both classic Hollywood noir and the time-shuffling narratives of the late Alain Resnais, telling a familiar story in ways that can feel compellingly new. Read more

Sheri Linden, Los Angeles Times: Every revelation registers in the gifted Amalric's gaze: infinitesimal physical mutations, emotional detonations. Read more

David Thomson, The New Republic: The ultimate triumph in what Amalric has done is to show us all the different forces that can be at work in an affair. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: Tense, intriguing and will keep the viewer off-balance. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: Palpable, reeking of moral seediness and disrepair. Read more

Tomas Hachard, NPR: The Blue Room pieces together the details of its plot like a jigsaw puzzle, but seeing the final picture is not its principal pleasure. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: The mystery is pretty low-key and the resolution somewhat disappointing. But Amalric is mesmerizing and the film's taut, chilly tone leaves us unnerved. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Mr. Amalric's direction remains graceful through the story's violent turns, its mood changes and tone shifts. Read more

Tirdad Derakhshani, Philadelphia Inquirer: A dazzling deconstruction of the mystery genre that turns its conventions on their heads. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: The real mystery is not a whodunit but the unplumbed narcissistic and masochistic depths of the male ego. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: "The Blue Room" feels like only two acts of a three-act story. With a whole other movement and 25 more minutes, this could have been an entirely satisfying picture. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The film is so bloodless that you don't care which legal side wins. Even the boudoir scenes are drab. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "The Blue Room" is the kind of film that demands to be seen more than once. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: It's a phenomenally executed exercise that, like its protagonist's memory, is too wispy for its own good. Read more

Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice: Most shots have the feel of still photos, the camera firmly planted and the actors not moving much, and the movie always hustles us to the next, back and forward in time, the effect part Resnais and part staccato Kodak slideshow. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: As a storyteller, Amalric is a master of manipulation, first leading the audience in one direction and then another. Read more